Catalan fruit association Afrucat has welcomed a decision by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food of Catalonia (DARP) to uproot some 2,000ha of peaches and nectarines to address the crisis affecting the region’s stonefruit producers.
The €10m grubbing scheme, which affects around 80,000 tonnes of production, will begin this year and is due to be completed by 2020. Producers will receive €5,000 per hectare up to a maximum of three hectares per grower, in return for a commitment not to plant stonefruit again for at least four years.
DARP said the plan was less expensive than taking alternative measures such as an extraordinary withdrawal of fruit during the campaign, which would cost an estimated €33m-55m a year.
Afrucat’s CEO Manel Simon said removing unprofitable plantations of old varieties that did not meet the quality requirements of the market would have a positive impact on this summer’s stonefruit campaign.
The association had previously estimated that Spain would have to reduce its stonefruit acreage by 15 per cent in order to bring supply in line with demand, following the closure of the Russian market in 2014.
